group projects for english language evaluation

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 112 ( 2014 ) 986 – 990

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Cognitive-counselling, research and conference services (c-crcs).doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1259

ScienceDirect

International Conference on Education & Educational Psychology 2013 (ICEEPSY 2013)

Group Projects for English Language Evaluation Alina Balagiuª, Liliana Maruntelub, Marioara Patesanc, Dana Zechiaª *

ª’Mircea cel Batran’ Naval Academy, Constanta 900218, Romania b‘Ovidius’ University,Constanta 900527, Romania

c‘Nicolae Balcescu’ Land Forces Academy, Sibiu 550170, Romania

Abstract

In the Eastern European countries, such as Romania, teaching used to be done in a traditional way, with the teacher talking and the students taking notes, and the evaluation of the students used to be done in a frontal or individual manner. Nowadays the methods of teaching and evaluating have changed and student centered methodology is prevailing. Students got used to work in pairs at papers for Scientific Conferences and got involved in different national and international projects together with their professors. In order to check the willingness of university students from Romania to work in groups, we tried to give them group projects for English language evaluation. The results will be analyzed in this paper.

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Dr Zafer Bekirogullari.

Keywords: group work, evaluation, academic students, methodology.

1. Introduction

Group work for English language projects is a new approach for the Eastern European countries, or at least for Romania, where teaching, generally speaking, used to be done in a traditional way, with the teacher talking and the students taking notes, and the evaluation of the students used to be done in a frontal or individual manner. As a method of teaching and assessing, the project work is not new, or at least not a last minute discovery, being studied and put into practice in the 90s.

Performance Assessment is evaluation based on observation and judgment; we look at a performance or

product and make a judgment as to its quality. Performance assessment overlaps with personal communication when the performance skills in question fall into the category of oral proficiency, such as speaking a foreign language or giving an oral presentation. Some of the most important assessments involving the above mentioned skills are:

Poster Sessions – this method also evaluates the student's ability to synthesize and present succinctly and attractively the material that he/she is required.

Presentations – a method involving the student to a great extent with all his/her skills and knowledge. The feed-back can be substantial because it can come from any person who assists in the presentation.

Group Projects and Dissertations – is a method that allows a full assessment of the knowledge and skills. Due to its great complexity, the method requires clear evaluation criteria as well as sufficient time resources. The formative value of this method is very high because it supports cooperative learning.

Students at all levels can do a project working alone or in a group according to the project scope and

difficulty. The project work implies a series of activities that allow the students to study, do research and act by themselves using their abilities, interests, personal experience and aptitudes. Many projects have been designed

* Alina Balagiu. Tel.: +4-072-370-9995; fax: +0-000-000-0000 . E-mail address: [email protected]

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© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Cognitive-counselling, research and conference services (c-crcs).

987 Alina Balagiu et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 112 ( 2014 ) 986 – 990

for juniors and adolescents, but as long as they serve the student-centered methodology they may be adequate for academic students learning English for Special Purposes.

There is a wide range of academic and social benefits of group work both at social and language learning level.

Increased active participation and involvement in the course; Improved student performance; Development of co-operation and planning skills; Opportunities for leadership and shared leadership; Promotion of student autonomy by transferring some of the responsibility for teaching and learning to

students; Learn from listening to the language used by other members of the group; Increased motivational level; Chance to develop fluency.

A survey conducted by a group of teachers from the Land Forces Academy in Sibiu established the types of

evaluation that are preferred by the military students. „According to the investigated subjects, the oral examination holds the first place in effectiveness. Despite the fact that students reported difficulties linked to the emotional control during this type of evaluation, they however, appreciate its ability to achieve a true and accurate feedback. Teachers also consider it to hold the first place.” Starting from the feedback of the study we tried to follow the same path for only one type of oral evaluation, the group project.

2. Objectives of the Study

Before setting group work we planned the objectives of the task in relation to the overall assessment program for the unit. On the general level, our main purpose was to achieve learning objectives regarding the development of collaborative skills, while the assessment focus was on the process of working in groups: collaboration and cooperation, analyzing the task and assigning responsibility for its components, leadership, teamwork, delegation and coordination, preparation and presentation of a report, awareness of issues that arose and techniques for managing difficulties. On the particular level, the objectives of the study were:

to examine the issues of students’ speaking in an ESL classroom; to identify the students’ perspectives with regard to their involvement in oral group activities; to determine the potential implication of group work activities on the students’ individual

performance in speaking assessment. Cooperative learning was, of course, encouraged through the use of study groups. These groups worked

collaboratively on assignment tasks in the formative stage and to a point defined by us, their teachers. Final assignments were drafted and finalized by each member individually. We also kept a journal to record attendance, actions, contributions and notes about the process.

A project work was given to a class of military students used to work as a group in every day situations or

when it is necessary. They have never been exposed to project work neither for learning purposes nor for evaluation, so that the task was new and challenging. The great majority of the students are intermediate level. The class was divided into 6 groups of five or six people to whom the same task was given “Military mentality and the new global order”. Taking into consideration their age and English level, they were given the freedom of choosing the type of presentation that suit each of the groups the best.

Another project work was assigned to the students of The Faculty of Economic Sciences from ‘Ovidius’ University, Constanta, Romania. The project was meant to make them realize the complexity of communication in business environment. The basis for the project was the course of English for Business Communication and was conceived as part of the final evaluation exam in English. In fact, this was the main motivation for their work.

3. Planning the project

There are some stages in planning the project, stages that cannot be seen by the students and others that are done together with the students. The first stage is the one taking place in the classroom, called by Diana Fried-Booth Classroom Planning [1]. At that moment the teacher divides the class into groups according to English knowledge criteria, so that all the students who are not so good at a certain skill could benefit from their mates’ knowledge. At this early stage there could be some issues due to the students’ lack of exercise working in groups, and some of them are: several students do not want to work with some of their mates because they do not


have a good relationship and they complain of the fact that the student who knows English better could be at a disadvantage in comparison with those who have a lower English level.

After changing the groups for several times some of the students eventually integrated into a group so that they could start working at the project. They had one meeting to decide for the method of work and presentation. The type of students’ organization for the project should be divided into three categories.

a. The students decided to do research independently, photocopy the materials related to the topic and bring them at the second meeting when they would also decide for the best choice and on who was going to present which part of the paper.

b. At the first meeting they decided what each student as part of the team should do. That part was going to be prepared for the presentation according to the possibilities of the implied student who was supposed to search for information and select the quantity and quality they wanted to.

c. The groups having at least one student with leadership qualities imposed his/her method of work at the first meeting and probably found the materials and divided them to the other students. The leader also decided for the type of presentation.

The students worked according to one of the methods mentioned above and succeeded in having the project ready for the evaluation date.

4. Presenting the project

‘A project is an extended piece of work on a particular topic where the content and the presentation are determined principally by the learners. The teacher or the textbook provides the topic, but as the examples in this section show, the project writers themselves decide what they write and how they present it.’[2] Our students had the total freedom concerning the form of presenting the project, the audio-visual means, the length of the whole presentation and posture and placement of the group. The only constraint was that every person in a group should have spoken to be evaluated individually and for his /her group work as well. At the beginning of the presentation the students hesitated to start speaking, especially the first group, but afterwards they just got used to the presentation and the groups followed in a normal order, not necessarily that of the initial group order. Each group tried to be different by using a multitude of presentation methods. Some of the strong points of each group came from the experience gained by students at Academic Conferences where they had presented papers working individually or in pairs. Although it was difficult for them to work as a group, they managed to involve every person in the group through the methods used.

The first group used power point with suggestive pictures and quotations belonging to important military leaders. They presented the subject of the project in relation with the new military strategy of the USA. To sustain their point of view, they started with shorter paragraphs read by mates that were not able to cope with the oral presentation and gradually moving to longer paragraphs presented by upper intermediate students. The group gained at total impression due to the strategy of presenting the materials.

The same method was used by the fourth and the fifth groups with some variations. The fifth group started their presentation with a quotation of General George S. Patton: Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”


The second group chose to make the presentation from the Power Point slides using quotations of political, economic and military personalities. They had very good coordination and worked as a whole to reach about the same level, fact that went to good grades for each of the members of the team.

The third group presented the task in the talk show format, as a debate between representatives of politicians, economists and military. The student who organized the group was the moderator who allotted the time for each speaker. The guests were a military specialist, an analyst in economics, a CIA analyst and a military analyst. Although they read the text the overall impression was that of a debate. The presentation was thoroughly planned; they even included a question for the audience in order to check the attention of their mates from the other groups.

The sixth group that dealt with the task had a different vision. They presented the notions accompanied by suggestive drawings and then moved to a second part that was a comparison between the old world order and the new one, taking into account what happened before and after 1990 in Europe and in the world. The comparison was presented in the graphic form of a table with two columns containing the years, numbers and names that helped the speakers to talk about the facts. The impression was of perfect coordination and hard work within the group that led to a high score in group evaluation.

5. Evaluation of the students‘ work

Individual work and group work assessment has the same basic principles, although the group work involves many other aspects related to group work process like the ability to communicate effectively, to meet deadlines, to participate in fairly to the team work etc. Moreover, the group performance must be translated/ transformed into individual grades and assess the students’ progress. In other words, you should assess the process (how students work) as well as the product (the work they produce).

“The most obvious point to note about project work is that language is only a part of the total project. Consequently, it is not very appropriate to assess a project only on the basis of linguistic accuracy. Credit must be given for the overall impact of the project, the level of creativity it displays, the neatness and clarity of presentation, and most of all the effort that has gone into its production.“ (Hutchinson, p.18)

Rules for persons presenting their project were established at the very beginning. Students were supposed to stick to same simple steps when presenting their projects. They had to:

- make the best of their materials; - visualize their results; - vary their methods; - make use of e.g. OHP, board, maps, authentic material; - start by giving the topic and an outline of their presentation; - speak clearly and slowly; - speak freely using notes only; - give keywords and explain them when used; - be prepared to ask and answer questions.

Minimum Requirements for the presentations were:

10-12 minutes, no shorter/longer Group introduction each group/team name as well as individual introductions Problem Introduction

o A brief introduction to each team's problem space/area. o They had to include what it is and why they as a group chose it.

Scenario o This will help make connections to those they present to as they can "put themselves in

someone else's shoes". The scenario also plays an important role in building the case, that is proving that the "problem" is indeed that.

Research o Background, current, and at least ONE data set and ONE visualization - with citations (inline

and not) as appropriate. This is the part of the project that should have the most importance. Design Solution


5.1. Stages in Project Presentation

Preliminary Presentation

It involved a presentation of the project. The students were to briefly present information needs, data obtained, analysis procedures used, findings synthesized, conclusions drawn, and recommendations offered. They could abstract material from each of the previous stages, but more focus was on findings and conclusions. Conclusions were to include an interpretation of the use of results. Recommendations suggested improvements for further exploration of the topic. Students used Power Point slides and a video presentation (commercial, PSA).

Final Report A final report was prepared that included material from each of the previous stages. Groups did not just

"mush" the reports together. You were supposed to have a clear outline, and material had to flow evenly from section to section with good transition A handout was provided to help them compile a final report in a standard, professional format. However, each study group was allowed to use whatever creative insight available particular to their topic to enhance the readability of the final report.

Final Presentation

A final presentation to partners was given in the two-hour slot of finals. Student attendance and participation in the presentation was required of all students enrolled in the course.

Group Evaluations

In the middle and at the end of the project, the students evaluated each member on their team (including each of them). This was a grade; meaning that not everyone in the group got the same grade. The aim of the evaluations was to reward those members that had been holding up their end of the work, and to let others know that they need to work on a few areas. Group evaluations were confidential and were seen only by teachers.

6. Conclusion - Significance of the Study

This study helped us to determine the effectiveness of using group work in teaching speaking in ESL classroom. It provided us with the rationale to carry out oral group work activities in class to improve students’ speaking skills. This study also gave suggestion to us, as ESL teachers to develop successful oral group activities as we could identify the major problems faced by our students. In addition, the students appreciated and worked with the strengths of others. This increased learning, planning and discussion skills and eventually improved their speaking capabilities. The students were involved as participants and decision-makers in oral group work activities. If at the beginning they were reluctant in participating in such projects, in the end they admitted not only that they had really enjoyed it but also the fact that it was of great use for them as they learned how to work in a team, how to carry out their individual tasks for the good of the whole team, how to research and find interesting data about a given topic. It was obvious that they really improved their speaking skill and way of presenting a topic orally and suggested the teachers to do it again soon.

References [1] Fried-Booth, D. L. (1987), Project Work, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 6. [2] Hutchinson, Introduction To Project Work – Teaching English, p. 10

group projects for english language evaluation

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